Assessing the magnitude and implications of seed germination changes during ex situ cultivation

Abstract

The conservation of plants ex situ, i.e. in living collections or as seeds in seed banks, has become a central pillar in current global conservation efforts. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) has set the ambitious target of safeguarding 75% of all endangered plants ex situ. This has resulted in a major boom of the ex situ conservation sector worldwide, and botanic gardens as major ex situ facilities, have strongly increased their investment in wild plant collections. There are currently more than 2,300 horticultural institutions such as botanic gardens, and over 350 professional seed banks worldwide storing and cultivating around 30% of known wild plant species (Donnell & Sharrock 2017; Mounce, Smith & Brockington 2017). While these numbers are impressive, there is not much knowledge about the quality of these collections, neither is there about how cultivation and seed storage can alter plant traits, and how these changes could affect the reintroduction success of an ex situ conserved species